LS9 and DOE researchers have modified the start-ups biofuel bacteria to produce many new compounds and to also be able to digest cellulose, found in plant waste. (Source: University of Saskatchewan)

Bacterial or algae based biofuels could one day offer inexpensive fuel for land, air, and sea transportation needs -- no batteries or fuel cells required. (Source: Dupont)

DOE has paired with LS9 to tweak and improve the company's genetic engineered design

The bacteria Escherichia coli is a very well studied organism
and an ideal starting point for genetic engineering a microorganism
to accomplish something useful. Unsurprisingly, San Francisco,
California-based biofuel
startup LS9 chose the microorganism as the starting point for
their biofuel push. The E. Coli microbe, commonly found
in feces, was modified by the startup to contain new enzymatic
pathways that converted part of the microbe's sugary diet into
hydrocarbon chains (biodiesel), which were then
excreted.

Now the U.S. Department of Energy’s Joint
BioEnergy Institute has paired with LS9 to tweak the microbe and
further improve and validate the company's approach. Despite
the enormous potential, the technology is still in its nascent
stages. Describes Eric Steen, a researcher with JBEI’s Fuels
Synthesis Division states, "There is still much more research to
do before this process becomes commercially feasible."

With a greater array of products
secured, the researchers next focused on converting sugars other than
glucose. To accomplish this the researchers added
hemicellulases, special enzymes that digest the tough cellulose
polysaccharides that typically go to waste.

Writes
Steen, "Engineering E. coli to produce hemicellulases enables
the microbes to produce fuels directly from the biomass of plants
that are not used as food for humans or feed for animals. Currently,
biochemical processing of cellulosic biomass requires costly enzymes
for sugar liberation. By giving the E. coli the capacity to ferment
both cellulose and hemicellulose without the addition of expensive
enzymes, we can improve the economics of cellulosic biofuels."

The
results were published
in the January 28, 2010 edition of the prestigious Nature
journal.

Continuing ahead the researchers see much work to be
done. Foremost among the objectives are maximizing the speed
and efficiency at which the microbes process the biofuels.

Some
will certain question whether it's worth it for the government and
private sector to be pouring so much money into funding biofuels
research. However, they must consider that biologically
produced biofuels are unarguably one of the strongest and most
promising cornerstones of energy research. After all, the
modern global industrial economy was built on the backbone of
naturally fixed solar energy in the form of hydrocarbons (oil, coal,
and natural gas), and being able to replenish these stocks in a cheap
carbon neutral manner could solve mankind's energy problems in the
short term -- and that could be enormously lucrative and beneficial.

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